The Sunderbans has as many tigers as it can possibly accommodate, a wildlife expert said on the eve of International Tiger Day.
Biswajit Roy Chowdhury, a member of the West Bengal Board for Wildlife, warned that climate change would kill the tigers of the Sunderbans.
Speaking at a panel discussion titled “Striped in Love — Tiger Conservation — the Road Ahead”, Roy Chowdhury recalled that he had a chance to walk in the core area of the Sunderbans recently and found to his dismay that a large area was white, covered with salt.
“There are no trees, no vegetation there. I was quite scared because there were pug marks on the salt banks. That implies that the tigers are now forced to move to fringe areas. No wonder tourists are sighting tigers easily,” said Roy Chowdhury.
Asked what could be the solution, the wildlife expert said: “I told the forest department that they could add the jungles of North 24-Parganas and South 24-Parganas and try and increase the forest area.”
A preliminary report of the latest national tiger census, released in April, found at least 100 tigers in the Sunderbans.
A more detailed analysis is expected on Saturday, according to forest officials.
While the Sunderbans is close to its tiger-carrying capacity, Buxa in north Bengal is a case of dwindling number of tigers.
In December 2021, a camera trap clicked a tiger in Buxa, the first recorded tiger sighting in more than two decades.
One of the solutions suggested was to introduce tigers at Buxa.
“Buxa has a very low number of herbivores. The security has to be beefed up as well. The camera traps at Buxa show poachers roaming with AK-47s, whereas our poor forest guards have very old guns. Besides, there is a lot of fragmentation of the forest land. It has to be one contiguous area.... Unless Buxa habitat is revamped, it will not be wise to release tigers there.”
Talking on human-animal conflict, wildlife photographer Shiladitya Chaudhury pointed out how in Sanjay-Dubri National Park in Madhya Pradesh, he had seen tigers roaming around with tractors moving in the same area.
“The same situation prevails at Bramhapuri in Tadoba Tiger Reserve,” said the photographer. “We need to relocate villages with compensation to villagers, alternative sites and alternative livelihoods too,” he said.